It's the time of year where there’s a lot of planning going on. Not only the short-term personal stuff involving gifts, parties, lunches, drinks, and dinners with friends and family, but also the longer-term work and business considerations. I’m not sure which is more stressful.
People are reflecting on the 12 months about to end, and contemplating what needs to be done in the 12 months ahead.
People are reflecting on the 12 months about to end, and contemplating what needs to be done in the 12 months ahead.
It was five years ago right about now that we were putting the final touches on our DIY website, just ahead of our very quiet launch in the last week before Christmas and our more public introduction early in 2019. If we're being honest, every year since then, our plan for the year ahead was pretty simple: survive. A lot of startups know that feeling, and it’s even more common at any kind of media startup.
But this year feels very different here at The Message. Now that we are part of Campaign—which is already, without any hyperbole, a world leader with aspirations to be even bigger—we are ending the year and looking ahead with grander plans than survival.
Not everything changes. We are once again working on our annual Mighty List (look for it Dec. 13 and 15), for example. And our core vision that started it all remains—that vision is shared by Campaign, which is why we able to come together in the first place.
The difference now is that we have more resources and support not just to realize that vision but accelerate it. Already this year we added our first new journalist, with Emma Johnston-Wheeler joining in early autumn.
But there’s also an entire company of people working alongside us now. For the first four years The Message was just Chris and me. Now, we’re regularly on video calls with a screen full of faces, there to talk about how we take this great little thing we built and make it even greater. Early in the new year, for example, we get to unveil a new website—we’ve seen the early models and have no doubt it’ll be a game-changer.
We also get to plan and develop an actual editorial calendar with tentpole content ideas about the issues and topics that are not just important to the Canadian advertising and marketing, but help elevate the industry and move it forward. Another example, which some of you may have already noticed, is we that we become the Canadian home for the Agency of the Year Global awards.
We have long believed that Canadian agencies were producing world-class work and are capable of producing more. We just need more of the world to see it, and Agency of the Year Global does that. Winners here will be shared with Campaign audiences around the world: six regions with 2.5 million views and 1.7 million followers. But it's also a program that considers agency performance through a different kinds of lens. This is a program about finding and celebrating the world’s best companies and talent.
There are the categories one would expect in an Agency of the Year program, but there’s also categories for speciality agencies, like PR, in-house, and performance. There are unique awards for individuals like account people, and business development, as well as staff engagement initiatives like diversity and inclusion, and best places to work. (Click here to learn more and here for some entry tips.)
The judging process itself is also different; it is not ONLY about creative excellence, or effectiveness. Those are important criteria, obviously, but judges—a panel of CMOs from around the world—also consider factors like thought leadership, innovation, culture and values.
It’s the kind of grand ambition we had when we started five years ago, and we can’t wait to make it a reality in 2024.
